Page 13 of Just for the Holidays
They’d made a mess of this.
Scratch that.He’dmade a mess of this.
Against his best judgment, he walked over and put an arm around her, and it was a testament to how upset she was that she didn’t fight him. She just sighed and burrowed into him. She let the whole weight of her body rest against him and he held her up. She looked up at him for a second, the winged eyeliner a little smudged now at the end of an emotional and chaotic day. “It was going to be my first Christmas with Esme’s family,” she explained, and she didn’t have to say why that meant a lot to her. He knew how things had been with her mother. She was going to finally spend the holidays with family who treated her like they wanted her there. And now she would miss it. Right then Gael decided he would do whatever it took to give her a good Christmas. In a couple of days she would drive out of his life for good, but he’d give her two perfect days.
He lifted her chin so that she looked at him. “You’re with family here, Perla. We’ll take care of you.” She didn’t look convinced in the slightest, but she had too much home training to scoff in front of his mother and grandmother.
The girl he’d known and loved—yes, loved—had turned into a woman who was still searching for home. Perla may have found her confidence, but in some ways she was still lost, still looking for the unconditional love she’d never had, and he would make it his mission to ensure she got as much warmth and family as she could take in the next forty-eight hours. And because his family was the most extra in the world, soon they had Abuela, Gabi, Veronica and even the dogs coming in for a group hug.
“Mija, I know you’re disappointed that you won’t be with your sister in Punta Cana, but we will make sure you have a great Nochebuena with us,” Veronica assured Perla as she pressed a kiss to her head.
“That’s right, and I already have a few jobs for you, especially setting the table and getting everything pretty for our dinner. I was going to have Gaelito do them, but we know that boy has no finesse.” Everyone laughed at Abuela’s teasing, and Perla gave them all a watery smile.
“Thank you. I feel terrible about crashing your holiday plans like this—”
“Crashing?” his mother cried in horror at the suggestion Perla was not implicitly a part of every Montez family holiday. “You’re family, baby. Gaelito’s girlfriend.” Gael felt her stiffen in his arms at the mention of their “relationship,” but Perla was back on full fake-it-till-you-make-it mode, and just nodded.
“Thank you,” she said, again, and when she looked up at Gael with those big stormy eyes, watery from unshed tears, something inside him cracked wide open.
“You’re exactly where you belong,” he told her, and to his surprise he felt the truth of those words in his very soul. He’d make sure he delivered on his promise to her.
“What are you doing?” Perla jumped at least a foot in the air when she heard Gael’s voice, and then almost passed out when she turned to answer him and ended up face-to-face with a naked and very muscular tanned torso.
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked irritably, instead of answering his question. Not that she could even put thoughts together when her brain kept trying to make her count the abs on his stomach.
Was that an eight-pack?
In college he’d had a swimmer’s body, tight and lean, but not much bulk. He was so tall, it wasn’t as if he needed the muscles to garner attention, but she guessed in Hollywood the more the better, at least when it came to brawn.
“I’m not,” he said, running a hand over his chest as a self-satisfied smile tugged up his stupid, gorgeous mouth. “I asked you a question, Perla.”
She furrowed her brow, trying extremely hard to recall what she could’ve possibly been doing before Gael short-circuited her brain with his abdominal muscles and extremely smooth, deeply bronzed skin.
“Um, what was I doing?” She looked down at her hands and finally her brain came back online. “I was decorating your tree.” She’d found the little fake fir hidden in a corner next to a box full of ornaments and lights. “I wanted to make the place a bit more festive since all the Christmas spirit seems to be relegated to the main house.” Apparently she said the wrong thing because now he was the one looking all flustered.
“Aren’tyoucold?” he asked—or growled if one was to get specific—pointing at her legs. She’d changed into something more comfortable while he was in the shower, and it seemed he’d noticed. He ran his gaze over her pajamas a few times, and she did not miss that he kept stalling on the spot where her shorts ended and her butt began. His eyes left a trail of heat all over her skin, enough to make her shiver. And yeah, they werepretty shortshorts. In her defense, she had packed for a trip to the tropics.
“I am, a little, but this is the only kind of pj’s I have, and as much as I love those faux leather leggings, they’re not very comfortable to sleep in.”
Okay, the hard staring was getting a little awkward.
And now he was walking away and going to the bedroom. God, had he always been this rude? With his family he’d been more or less normal, but since they’d come back to the cottage he’d been broody and short with her. And okay, she hadn’t exactly been warm either, but this situation was nerve-racking.
“Here.” His sharp voice resounded in the small space, and Perla looked up to find Gael holding up what looked like a pair of joggers.
She narrowed her eyes at him without making a move to take the pants. “Gael, you’re almost a full foot taller than me. Those won’t fit me. Also, I’m a bit curvier in certain areas.” He directed his gaze at the area she was referring to, lips wrapped around his teeth, before facing her again.
“You can cuff them.”
Was he giving her orders?
She crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling contrary. “No.If you have a problem with what I’m wearing, I suggest you stop looking.” With that she turned around and made sure her bottom was on full display as she bent down to pick up the box of ornaments she’d found. He could sound as mad as he wanted, but she’d seen him checking her out. She’d gained a bit of weight in the past few years, but for the first time in her life she felt comfortable in her own skin. Her mother had always drilled into her that she didn’t have “the height for curves” and she’d always obsessed about dieting and her weight, but like most of the things her mother advised her on, Perla realized it hadn’t been good for her.
So yeah, her butt was a bit bigger and her curves more generous, and she loved her body this way. And from the groaning and teeth-sucking behind her she assumed Gael didn’t hate it, either. But for the sake of her own sanity, she ignored him and focused on wrapping fairy lights around the tiny tree.
“I don’t want a tree in here,” he finally said, his voice tight. He was such a grump about everything. He’d never been much for holiday cheer, but this year he was a full-on grinch. She turned around and found him looking at her with that terse expression, like having her in his space made his skin crawl.
“What’s your problem, Gael? There are trees next door and you don’t glare at them like you want to murder them. You used to be fine with decorating.” She remembered driving over from her family’s sumptuously decorated mansion in Greenwich to his house one year and going to Target with Gael to buy a new tree and outdoor decorations. It had been after he’d gotten paid for one of his first commercials. He picked out every ornament with such care. Perla had noticed some of them had been hanging on the new tree in his mother’s living room. But as cheerful as things were in the main house, Gael’s little space was...stark.
